Walking It Off

One night last week Howard Edwards could not sleep well. A salesman in Newark, N. J., he felt the need of a good night's rest, so he swallowed some veronal. As he was dozing off Howard Edwards' mother looked at the bottle, saw he had taken three times the normal dose. She called a hospital.

Howard Edwards was jolted to the hospital in an ambulance. There attendants kept him awake while Dr. Earl Hubert Snavely examined him. Dr. Snavely whispered some words to the attendants and they led Howard Edwards down a corridor toward a room. At the door of the room they turned him around, led him back. Howard Edwards began to protest. "I gotta sleep," said he.

A few hours later two other orderlies took charge of Howard Edwards. Up & down the hospital corridors they marched him, down & up stairs, in & out of rooms, all night long. Then they put him in a wheel chair. Howard Edwards sighed with relief, began to doze. The wheel chair performed a series of jolts, jerks, starts and stops, almost spilling Howard Edwards out. "I'm sick!" cried Howard Edwards. "If I die, I die." The orderlies, unmoved, made him walk again.

All night, all morning and all afternoon Howard Edwards continued to walk and ride. As soon as he grew used to walking he was given a ride; as soon as he made himself comfortable in the chair he was pulled to his feet. As dusk fell he was put to bed, shaken and bothered into wakefulness. Long after midnight Dr. Snavely decided that he had worked off the effect of the veronal, might sleep without danger of never waking. But that night, again, Howard Edwards could not sleep well.

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